Goodbye to Hewitt

After the trip to Philadelphia, we knew we had to get busy for the closing on the house. It seems like all we did for the three weeks between getting home and the closing on the 26th was sort and pack. Harold was in charge of the packing and he maximized the amount of things going into each box. We labeled each box then took them to the storage building. We also worked hard at using up all the food in our refrigerator and freezer. Our daughter Ann got plenty of things and we sent two boxes of food to a local church group. It seemed like we would not get done in time, but somehow we did.
The auction company came to get the furniture and appliances as well as some more miscellaneous things. We have a very large very heavy curio cabinet that we are moving with us to Bucerias. It is really the only large piece of furniture we are taking. It is taller than our doors and hard to move. So we got the two guys from the auction company to move it to the storage building. When we got there, I went to open the garage door to the unit. It usually opens fairly easily. Well, this time it wouldn’t even budge! Finally, the strong guys opened it. Some of our boxes had slid and were resting against the door. They helped us restack the boxes as well as put the curio cabinet in storage. We are going to hire the same guys to load our moving trailer for us.
Almost everything fit in the storage building. Some of the more bulky things such as the lawn mower and barbecue grill are in my dad’s shop. We have a few things to continue to sort through and pack.
Finally the house was empty and relatively clean. We did take a final swim in the pool. It was sad to say goodbye to the place we have lived for more than 22 years. But the plan is moving forward and soon we will be off to Bucerias.

Philadelphia and Dallas

Philadelphia

After the week in Myrtle Beach, we drove to Philadelphia to spend a few days at Debbie’s house. We packed 7 people and all the luggage in the van and off we went. Actually, packer extraordinaire Harold packed the van. Steve commented that even though we had more people and more luggage going north than they had going south, there was more room in the van.
The trip was uneventful. Mike, a former bus driver, did a great job of driving. A couple gas/pit stops, one stop for dinner and we were back to Pennsylvania.
Mostly what we did at Debbie’s house was eat, discuss where we were eating next and talk about what and where we had eaten.
We did get together with Harold’s Aunt Doris and Uncle Len. They are planning a trip to Italy, so we talked about traveling, caught up on what’s new with Harold’s cousins and had a nice visit. Another day we met one of Harold’s cousins, her husband, their two daughters and granddaughter for lunch. After lunch we spent a relaxing afternoon at the pool at the home of one of the cousins. The day was capped off by having a delicious ice cream cone at Thomas Sweets in New Brunswick, NJ, home of Rutgers University.
The few days we had in Philadelphia went by very quickly. We flew back to Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
Kelly and Deanna from the All Vallarta board had invited us to stay at their house in Grand Prairie. We got to their house and got settled in then went to the sports bar called Texan Station at the Gaylord Texan . It is a huge resort/conference hotel plopped down in Grapevine Texas. We tried several of the appetizers, several types of drinks and all the desserts. The whole place is huge! But then, this is Texas so what do you expect?
Sunday we met Deb and John for lunch. We all enjoyed the good food and the company. A surprise phone call came during our lunch. Everyone thought it would be Howard, but it wasn’t. Richard, from Oklahoma City, was calling to wish us well. How cool is that?
Well, after lunch we came back to Waco. Since the closing on the house was sneaking up on us, we had to get busy.

Myrtle Beach

Harold’s sister Debbie told us she was going to Myrtle Beach, SC for a vacation. She and her son Steve were going with their good friends Mike and Renee and their son Shawn. They all live in the Philadelphia area. The reason for the trip was that Mike and Renee’s daughter Jamie and her husband Rob, who live in California, were going. Rob’s family has vacationed in Myrtle Beach for many years. So Rob’s parent’s (Pete and Gina), Rob and Jamie, and Rob’s brother (David )and his girlfriend (Blanca, and her niece Diana) were all going. OK, now you know all the players. There may be a quiz at the end.
Harold and I flew to Myrtle Beach and were met at the airport by Debbie, Mike and Renee. They had arrived earlier in the day and checked into the hotel. Debbie, Steve, Mike, Renee , Harold and I were sharing a suite. The others were staying at the same resort. Ten of them had driven from Philadelphia with a stop at Busch Gardens. We had been invited to do that also, but decided that was too much driving and too much time away from home.
As soon as we got to Myrtle Beach International airport, we noticed how hot and humid it was. The first few days we were there, Myrtle Beach was having a huge heat wave. The heat index was 118 and there was very little breeze on the beach. We swam in the ocean, which was about 85 degrees! The outdoor pools were so warm it was not fun to swim in them. The indoor pool stayed cooler.
Because it was so hot and no breeze, sitting on the beach, even under an umbrella, was pretty toasty. But we managed.
Myrtle Beach is a very busy family vacation spot. The beach was very crowded. The concession company puts up beach umbrellas and chairs every day. They are as close together as they can possibly be. You have to duck under the edge of the umbrella to get through to the water. Each umbrella along with its 2 chairs rented for $25 per day. On the beach in front of our hotel, there were 50 umbrellas. The hotel didn’t provide any other chairs so the first day we went our and bought a couple chairs and umbrellas.
One night we went to a shopping area called Broadway on the Beach. We would have liked to spend more time exploring the center – maybe next time. There were lots of cool shops, restaurants and bars there. Another night we went to a show called Dixie Stampede. This is a dinner theater type show with singing, dancing and horses. We all enjoyed the show and the dinner.
In the lobby at our hotel there was a timeshare representative. You could get 2 tickets to the Dixie Stampede for $10 for going to a presentation. Since Harold and I have been to presentations before that were very long and high-pressure we weren’t going to go. We warned Jamie and Rob of our experiences but they signed up anyway. Well, imagine our surprise when they returned to the hotel 2 hours after leaving. The 90-minute presentation was really 90 minutes, and low pressure. So Harold and I signed up and so did Debbie. We chose the $75 cash option and went to see the presentation. It was so low key it was almost no key! 90 minutes later we were out the door. I wonder if the level of pressure is proportional to the value of your gift. Pre-packaged sweet rolls and $75 cash in South Carolina equates to lower pressure than a buffet breakfast ad $200 plus cash in Puerto Vallarta. Another difference was that our sales person had 3 couples that she toured and gave pricing information to. After telling her no, we only had 1 other stop. That lady gave us a very brief pitch for vacation clubs and then gave us our money for attending.

Sunday night, Harold and I got together with some friends, Marvin and Sandy. Marvin is also retired from Masterfoods USA. Both of them are originally from South Carolina and have moved back there since retiring. They brought their cute 8 year old grandson Zachary with them. After dinner, we went to take a look at their condo, a nice little studio right on the beach. They plan on remodeling it this year and using it more since they now live closer.
Myrtle Beach was not my favorite vacation spot but it was fun. If it hadn’t been so darn hot the first couple days we could have gotten out and walked around more. The last 2 days had occasional thunderstorms but enough clear weather we still were able to enjoy the beach and walk around the area some. If we go back, we will definitely rent a car and do more exploring.